 Okay, so you've put in a few years since your martial art, trained hard and tested for your black belt. Awesome, great job. Now that means you're ready to step into the role of instructor and start teaching, right? Well, not necessarily. There's a lot more to teaching the martial arts than simply repeating what you've learned. You have to understand that you need to be able to relate to your students, be able to break down lessons effectively and appropriately depending on the age of your students. And most of all, understand everything that's involved in stepping into the role of leader and being a role model of your school. So today we're going to talk about how to approach teaching the martial arts. What we're talking about today will apply to those who are considering becoming an instructor as well as anyone who may be experienced teachers and simply are looking for another perspective. So where do we begin? First there are two supplemental tools to this topic that I would like to recommend and I'll talk about them in a little bit more detail later in this video. The first one is a video workshop that we film with my instructor a few years ago. It's a two-hour instructional video that goes in depth into setting up your own school, setting up a program and running it successfully. There's a lot of great information in there. I recommend checking it out and I have posted the link to it in the description below. The second is a book I mentioned last month sent to me by one of our viewers, author and she-food Jonathan Bluesting. It's called The Martial Arts Teacher and it talks a lot about the personal challenges, rewards and consequences of teaching any martial art. There is a lot of great advice on how to craft a better version of yourself as a leader and an instructor so I recommend this as well. I've just started reading it. What I found so far has been amazing and I look forward to finishing it. So both of these should pair very well together in crafting your own program and they are both listed below in the description. Okay so let's begin by assuming you're just starting from the beginning. Just because you have a black belt does not mean you're automatically ready to lead classes. In fact, many martial art systems require you to have achieved at least a few black belt ranks before you are considered a sensei. After all, you are stepping into a big responsibility and assuming the role of leader so you really need to be ready to do that. Honestly, I feel the best way to start is to become a junior instructor. Some schools already have rules and guidelines laid out for teaching but if yours doesn't, talk to your instructor. Tell them that you want to help in the system of classes. This is a great way to find your bearing without a lot of the responsibility piled on you immediately. I started out as a junior instructor back in 1996 and basically we opened up the class, led the warm-ups and then we worked with the beginning ranks on their material when the class is split up into groups. After a little bit of experience, we were able to start a small lesson with the class to kind of explore our teaching style a little bit and then the main instructor would take over. So becoming a junior instructor is a fantastic way to start and honestly it's going to tell you pretty quickly if this is something that you want to pursue or not. Now when it comes to actually teaching something to a student, you have to do more than just show them and expect them to repeat it. You need to be able to break down the technique, the kata, the basic, whatever it is. You got to break it down to the fundamental level. You need to understand how it's done, why it's done, and any alterations that could be done to it. Although truthfully, you should already know that if you've tested and ranked for black belt. My first instructor would tell us when we were becoming junior black belts that you truly didn't know a technique until you could call somebody up on the phone, explain it to them in detail, at least to the point where they could perform it or close to it. Basically, you better have a darn good understanding of the material before you attempt to teach it to someone else, especially in the perspective of self-defense. So let's go down that road for a second. When you become an instructor, you are assuming a great responsibility. There are many reasons people join the martial arts, but most often self-defense is usually the primary one. You are teaching material to people that they are expecting to use to save their lives, so you better damn well know it enough to confidently teach it to another person. It's so easy to get hurt in the martial arts, we don't need the added risk of poor instruction. Also, it's very easy to develop an ego when in a leadership role, but be sure to leave it outside. I once knew of an instructor that seemed determined to prove himself in class as a priority. He'd like to shill off and he often picked the highest ranking students to throw them around. It got to the point he ended up losing the school because he was abusing his students and he was hurting them and nobody wanted to train under him anymore. Don't be that guy. It's not about you being better, it's about you teaching skills to make them better martial artists. Also, be prepared to answer questions. If you know the material well enough, then you should be able to answer most of them, but if you are asked something that you don't know off the top of your head, it's okay to admit it. You are human after all and you don't have to pretend to be some all-knowing robot. If you are asked a question that you cannot immediately answer, simply tell them that they've raised an excellent point and that you would like to give it some thought and get back to them with a solid answer. And honestly, when this happens, it only makes us better at what we do. We learn in the process of teaching others. I cannot tell you how many times a light bulb went off on my head when I'm explaining something to a student and I suddenly realized a parallel or a relationship with another technique that I hadn't considered before. It could be really exciting and you benefit from it as well. And if you're just starting out, you need to consider your approach to teaching different age groups. Working with children is dramatically different than teaching adults. With adults, you are teaching the full depth and dynamic of the art. They will ask questions and they will expect you to give knowledgeable answers. You can also spend an entire class with them on a single concept, breaking it down, analyzing it, letting them practice an experiment. With children, you need to have a different level of engagement. Their understanding isn't typically quite as developed as an adult would be. So you may have to break concepts down into smaller pieces, a little bit more digestible and keep the class moving at a constant pace with different drills so it doesn't become static. Teach them solid basics before giving them complex material. This will help them later as they prepare to enter the adult curriculum and work towards their adult black belt. Now, if you're working with a really young age group, and I'm talking children ages four to six, then just please realize that at that age, there is an appropriate level of curriculum. They're not going to be able to understand and perform a cauda like an adult will. This is a very rudimentary and beginning stage for them. Stick to the basics. At this point, they're still learning coordination, balance, reflexes, and usually attention span and discipline. So before you start teaching any age group, please understand who you will be working with and approach it accordingly. If you teach a five year old as if he's an adult, you're going to lose their focus pretty quick. And if you teach an adult class as if they are children, well, you're really not going to have students for very long. Now, sometimes schools will have multiple instructors on the floor. Usually one will lead a particular class while the others walk around and assist. Working with instructors has some considerations too. First of all, and importantly, be respectful to each other. There should not be any power struggle or visible conflict in taking control of the class. If you are not the one leading the class and the head instructor gives you a task or asks you to take a group and work on something, don't question them, don't confront them, at least not on the mat in front of the students. All that happens in that situation is it shows them a breakdown of authority that the students see and that really impacts the school. If you have a legitimate concern, talk to them privately outside of class. If you are the one leading the class and another instructor questions you, keep your cool, don't confront them and simply tell them that you would be happy to discuss it after class once the drills are done. You are in a leadership role and there is an expected level of conflict resolution skills that come with that role. So another responsibility you need to be aware of. Now, if you are one of multiple instructors, be prepared to hear this question. But that's not how so and so showed me. Every person teaches slightly differently and even if you're teaching the same way another instructor is, perhaps your approach is different or also very often the student understands it and interprets it differently than what it was than what was intended. This is very common here, especially in an art that has multiple organizations or versions. My Art of Kempo is no stranger to this. There are no two Kempo schools that teach the exact same way. I teach part-time at a school. We have multiple instructors here. We also have different backgrounds. So sometimes we do get this question. How I usually respond is I ask them to show me how they learned it from the other instructor, then I will look for similarities to point out. And I'll also say to them that this is just another way to approach it. So sometimes you have to kind of compare, see what the student is showing you first. Do not tell them the other instructor was wrong. If their technique is vastly different than explore what the end result is expected. As long as the student understands the concept of what they're being taught, you can explain to them that there are sometimes different ways to achieve the same result. I mean, I can teach that two plus two equals four, but another instructor might teach one plus three. We're both right. It's just two methods of achieving the same result. Now, if you find that there really is an error in the way they learn from the other instructor, approach them privately and then go over that technique together to determine if an adjustment needs to be made or simply if the student just made an error in understanding. Don't correct them and confront them on the floor. Now, if you were running your own school or you have your own program, then having junior instructors teaching under you may be a good option as well, especially if your classes are large, it helps to have assistance. We do this with the kids as well. The higher ranking kids are allowed to help out with the beginner's classes. Their role is to help them make small adjustments, you know, stance corrections, you know, get them in line, guide them in drills. And even the cheer on the really young ones. It's a great learning experience for them as well. And it can even work well if you've got students who, let's say, are working on some behavior issues, asking them to help you as an assistant can sometimes give them a little boost of self-esteem. And that alone, that little boost alone can often make a great difference in their behavior. Give the young assistants and junior instructors some responsibility and let them grow as martial artists. Now, when it comes to opening up your own school, that is a completely involved topic in itself, and there is a lot to consider. And we might go over that in some in the future video. But if you are interested in opening your own school and running your own program, then once again, I highly recommend our video workshop. My previous instructor, Fred Mergan, has a lot of experience running schools. He taught for many years and ran a few of his own over the course of those years. So in the description below, there is a link to the workshop. And in that link, you can see some snippets if you click on the trailer thumbnail. I also want to give a quick disclaimer. The two main comments that we see are people questioning him looking like Chuck Liddell and also, why are the kids wearing belts with MMA shorts? Mr. Mergan did work with Chuck Liddell's MMA camp for a while, and the kids got a really big kick out of that. Fred Mergan is an excellent teacher with children. He finds ways to relate to them. So he took on this persona to inspire them to get into that program. They loved it. Regarding the uniform, the school was originally exclusively Kemple Kratty, so they all had formal keys and belts and the full uniform. As he added MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu to this training, he began to switch the school over to MMA, but he let the kids keep their belts just for class testing purposes and didn't want them to feel like they were losing rank or having anything taken away from them, anything like that. So if you are interested in opening up a school or becoming an instructor, Mr. Mergan has a lot of insight to offer. The first hour of the video goes into setting up a school and the second half of the program covers running classes and a successful program. So those are just some ideas to keep in mind when pursuing a role in teaching martial arts. At the end of the day, you have to feel good about what you're doing and you need to deliver that positive impact on your students that they deserve. It's also a great opportunity to come up with creative drills and classes to keep things fresh and never be afraid to experiment. Use the school as your own personal sandbox. If you have an idea that you want to explore, let the students be your test subjects, even make it a group exploratory activity. I would love to hear any teaching stories that you may have and any creative drills that you've come up with, as well as any challenges or successes that you can share with us. As always, thank you so much for watching and please share and subscribe.